Entrepreneurs on a Roll : Pair Seeks to Give Skateboarders a Place to Play in Peace

When skateboarding was banned in downtown Ventura earlier this year, 24-year-old skateboarders Roger Thompson and Tim Garrety looked for a way to give young people the best of what downtown streets and sidewalks have to offer.

But they wanted to get the skateboarders away from pedestrians, angry business owners and the police.

They say their proposed Skate Street Ventura on Knoll Drive near Ivy Lawn Cemetery will be an indoor version of the city’s hottest outdoor skateboarding sites.

On Monday, the City Council is scheduled to again discuss building a public skateboard park. The city, which has budgeted $350,000 for the park, has been unable to reach consensus on any of several proposed sites.

City Public Works Director Ronald Calkins has suggested in a report to the council that the city consider subsidizing low-income skateboarders at the proposed indoor park as an alternative to building a park on public land.

“This is a fee-charge facility, and I think the council would support the concept of a partnership that could allow discounted use for those who couldn’t afford it,” Calkins said.

Calkins said he expects Thompson and Garrety to file a building permit Monday. The Knoll Drive location is zoned for such an enterprise, he said.

Ventura officials have been trying to come up with a solution to the problem of skateboarding for some time, Calkins said. Business owners have complained that the latest generation of skateboarders chase customers off sidewalks, and the city has complained they damage public property.

In response, the council has banned skateboarding on downtown sidewalks and at two sites near the county Government Center.

“There has been a lot of interest to create a [city-built] skateboard park,” Calkins said. “Everybody seems to be for it until they try to pick a site.”

Skateboarders, who have attended numerous City Council meetings, are complaining even louder that they have nowhere to go.

Thompson and Garrety, both 1990 graduates of Buena High School, have not asked the city for money to help build or subsidize their facility, Calkins said.

Thompson said he and skateboard park designers Mike Taylor and John Oliver want to build a facility unlike any other.

“It’s going to be the most usable and the most fun place to skate,” Thompson said. “I think it will be the most desirable skateboard park in the country.

“We want to build a theme park using street scenes,” he said. “We want to take the things kids love about the outdoors and bring them into a manageable indoor setting.”